Vote Assyrian fights for a seat at the table

Chicago – Last January, Ashur Shiba joined 61 Assyrian community leaders throughout Chicago to become a certified deputy registrar. The event was part of Vote Assyrian, an initiative started in 2015 by Billy Haido and Ramsin Benjamin that registers Assyrians to vote as well as promotes civic representation.

“That event was huge,” Shiba said. “We’re talking about the most democratic country in the world, and now I have my hand in it. I have my hand in local elections, I have my hand in general elections federally as well as locally, and our community lacks voters.”

After listening to Illinois leaders in government, going through formal training, and taking an official oath, Shiba and his colleagues became able to register American citizens to vote locally.

The event was one of a number that have been hosted by the non-profit voting initiative over the past two years.

“We don’t tell you who to vote for,” Shiba said. “We tell you when early voting is and when you should go out and when you shouldn’t go out and vote. We ask you to vote to voice your opinion.”

According to the 2000 United States Census, nearly 35,000 Assyrians live in Illinois, although Assyrian organizations now estimate that number is closer to 60,000, including 17,000 alone in Skokie.

In 2015, while the chairperson for the economic development committee in Skokie, Billy Haido learned that the Assyrians were the largest population in the Chicago suburb at 25%, including 30% of the school district.

Haido linked up with Ramsin Benjamin, who at the time was the executive director of the Assyrian American Chamber of Commerce, and together they began voter registration drives to mobilize the large Assyrian population.

“We thought it would be a very beneficial thing for our Chamber,” Haido said. “Vote Assyrian’s idea is to educate our community on the importance of voting and understanding that voting is not just about electing the President, it’s about voting for local politicians because those are the ones that really influence our day to day.”

Haido and Benjamin modeled their mobilization efforts after the Assyrian Committee for Civic Responsibility (ACCR), a grassroots committee in Chicago that worked on Assyrian civic engagement in Chicago in the early 2000s.

The Vote Assyrian initiative expanded on the early ACCR model with informational sessions on voting dates and procedures as well as political forums to introduce Assyrians to local candidates.

“At political forums, politicians would see 500 or 600 people and it’s very impressive, but the results are that a majority of the Assyrians that were coming were not registered to vote,” Haido said.

Although there are a few committee members throughout the country, Haido hopes to bring Vote Assyrian under a national umbrella in the near future and gain larger recognition.

“It was always a local initiative,” Haido said. “We partnered with a couple groups in Arizona and Southern California and once we established it [in Chicago], we would give them the model of what we had done and duplicate it, but it has to start locally.”

Shiba was already actively attending local civic forums when he heard about Vote Assyrian and began a deputy registrar in early 2016. After the November Presidential election, Shiba asked Haido and Benjamin to join the board of directors. He wanted to carry the enthusiasm from the Presidential election into local nominations. Encouraging Assyrians to vote, Shiba said, is a long term goal for the community.

“Growing up, it wasn’t something my parents pushed for,” he said. “It wasn’t something they would come out and tell us that voting is important.”

Recently, Vote Assyrian sponsored a breakfast with Congresswoman Jan Schkowsky, where Assyrian women were invited to talk to the Illinois Democratic state representative.

“[Schkowsky] told us that if we’re not on the table, then we’re on the menu,” said Rema Shamon, an active Assyrian leader in Chicago who was invited to attend the event. “The importance of civic engagement [among Assyrians] hasn’t been highlighted. Very non-traditional professions like politics or journalism are overlooked in our community and can make a difference.”

Schkowsky encouraged the women not to be afraid from speaking up, vocalize their accomplishments, and urged women in the room to run for civic leadership roles. Since the event, she has stayed in touch with the women and began mentoring them.

This Sunday, Vote Assyrian set up outside of the Mar Odisho Assyrian Church of the East.

Lt. Colonel Sargis Sangari, an Assyrian running for the 9th Congressional District of Illinois, was available at the church to help register voters. Sangari reached out to Chicagoland Assyrian church leaders to emphasize the importance of a unified push for registration.

“I want to focus Assyrians in a direction that they have a reliable candidate they can support and get individuals registered who can vote,” Sangari said. “Hopefully, this is the first push for the next 100 years. We have to start establishing a small footprint in the United States to effect what major policies are.

“If we can get this large number to turn out, now we’ve been able to at least show our strength to say look what the Assyrians are capable of doing when it comes to either vote to retain you or vote you out.”

Vote Assyrian plans to offer membership opportunities in the future and invite members to annual meetings where they can shape the future of the organization.

“On television, you always hear that a vote doesn’t matter, ” Shiba said. “My vote in the city of Illinois might not dictate who the President of the United States will be, but our votes here locally can dictate who our local officials are and those local elected officials can then communicate to the President of the United States.”

A general election will be held in Illinois on November 6, 2018. All of Illinois’ executive officers as well as the state’s eighteen seats in the house will be up for election.

If you are interested in volunteer or learning more about Vote Assyrian, visit voteassyrian.org or email info@voteassyrian.org.

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Dallas, TX – “I started playing soccer in my village. It was a reason to get together as Assyrians every week. We would play soccer and then go eat or hang out. I eventually played for the Assyrian club in Urmi. When I moved to San Jose, I helped found the Infinite Sports Association. Now in Dallas, it’s funny that there are a lot of empty soccer fields that you don’t get elsewhere. We used to pay a lot of money to get a couple hours to play on this type of field. In San Jose, for two hours we would pay almost $250 and here in Dallas this field is free with beautiful grass, free goals, everything free.”

Chicago, IL – “I grew up in a bad country and couldn’t talk about anything, even our flag because you were always scared of the government. A lot of people don’t know how this flag is special for people. That’s why we do this in our yard, because we want people to recognize that if we didn’t have this American flag then we wouldn’t be sitting in this house today. People fought for this flag, for this freedom so we can sit here together and talk about being both Assyrian and American. You lose one of your identities if you don’t.”

Dallas, TX – “With motherhood, you first think of all of those happy times of sitting down and playing and going out. But it’s more about giving all of who you are, everything you have, plus more. When you think to yourself, ‘I’ve given everything I have,’ and then they wake up at night one more time and you say, ‘I have to do this again, I have to give more after I’ve already given everything.’ It’s the hardest job and it takes everything out of you, but it’s worth it and you would do it all over again when you see them happy.”

Dallas, TX – “Having grown up in the West, one of the positives is that my girls have the ability to empower themselves. For me, raising girls here is similar to raising boys. I’m going to teach them what I know, whether it’s science, engineering, you name it, it doesn’t make a difference to me their gender. There is no glass ceiling from my perspective, I want them to be as successful as they can be.”

Chicago, IL – “I never get tired of traveling because I travel for my people and enjoy accomplishing something for my nation. I also love people watching. That’s why I go to the airport an hour earlier, just to sit around and watch everyone and listen to my podcasts. I love people and I get joyful when I hear them laughing. We need more happiness in the world. We don’t see it anymore. Everyone’s head is down, everyone is looking at their phones, everyone is so intense. There is so much conflict in the world, you don’t see anyone laugh anymore. So when I do see those glimpses of joy and happiness, it makes me so happy.”

Chicago, IL – “I started vlogging to have a more highly produced version of an archive of my life. This year’s vlog of the Assyrian convention is footage from a lot of different things. It’s both the pool parties and something more in-depth and cultural, so a mix of both. I also did a lot of things that doing a vlog for wouldn’t do justice, like the youth summit. You have to be there for that, it’s not the same to see it, you have to be there and interact with people. One day I’m going to look back and have all of these memories nicely produced of what I did at this convention. I encourage everyone to do it.”